The Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment is en­cour­ag­ing the pub­lic to take ex­tra cau­tion, as riv­er lev­els in North and Cen­tral Trinidad re­main high. 

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry's Riv­er Lev­el Ad­vi­so­ry for 8:30 am to­day [Fri­day, No­vem­ber 18], the Ca­roni Riv­er is at 91 per­cent ca­pac­i­ty [RED Lev­el alert sta­tus] in the El Car­men area.  

In ad­di­tion, the Min­istry re­ports that in the Bam­boo Set­tle­ment #3 area, the Ca­roni Riv­er was at 73 per­cent ca­pac­i­ty [YEL­LOW Lev­el alert sta­tus].

The Min­istry's ad­vi­so­ry notes that the North Oropouche Riv­er, in the area of To­co Road, was at 82 per­cent ca­pac­i­ty [OR­ANGE Lev­el alert sta­tus] at 8:30 am to­day.

The Min­istry ad­vis­es that high tides will re­sult in slow­er wa­ter run off.  High tide will be at 12:11 pm.

Oth­er ma­jor rivers - such as the Aripo, Arou­ca and Ca­paro Rivers - cur­rent­ly are said to be at be­low 50 per­cent ca­pac­i­ty.

The Min­istry is urg­ing af­fect­ed com­mu­ni­ties to call the rel­e­vant Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Units for as­sis­tance.